Cat poop problem: Giardia?

Hi,

I have a six month old ragdoll who is having softish stools. They are always formed (normal looking brown logs) the only problem is that they "stick" to my cats anus quite a lot and have an unusually fowl smell.. After he comes out from the box he gets a butt check and usually some hygiene help... After several stool samples the vet was finally able to diagnose him with giardia (first samples came back negative so next sample was sent for off site lab testing). I was given Metronidazole (50mg antibiotic) to be given twice a day. He is on the last day of pills today and seen no improvement when it comes to stool sticking to his behind/smell. I plan to send another sample after today, but the impression the vet gave me was that after two days we would see improvement in his stool... He was not treated with that one dewormed used with giardia because he has reacted badly to other dewormers in the past....

Could there be a diet related problem also? He is on blue buffalo wilderness kitten dry food and gets around one pouch of natural balance plate full pouches a day (he will NOT eat any other wet foods... Not even Stella ad chewys freeze dried raw). The breeder had him on royal canin kitten dry and we did not have a stool problem, but this was also before we knew he had giardia. He has previously been on orijen kitten and had same issues as now... I have even tried eliminating the wet food to see if that was the problem, but wondering if its the dry? If so any recommended foods?

Just looking for some opinions and maybe similar experiences with giardia? He has never had anything close to diarrhea other than the wet stuff sticking to him butt, but if giardia is causing all his signs/symptoms then the antibiotics did not work...?

Thanks in advance,
Concerned cat mom

Here is an older thread about giardia  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/248314/cant-get-rid-of-parasites-giardia    It isn't unusual to need a second round of treatment for giardia.  There are also some things you can do to avoid reinfection.  I would make sure she is clear of giardia before working on diet.

Did you get your kitty from a breeder?  If so I would let the breeder know.  Not to make trouble but just to let them know they may have giardia in the environment.  

Smell and food texture can also be directly related to what he's eating.  What are you feeding him?  You might also look into a "sani shave" to help keep the bottom clean and have fewer cling-on problems. 

If the food your feeding is grain free, you may have to opt for a dry kibble with grains. Royal Canin is full of grains. I tried many different brands of grain free kibble for our cat, but she couldn't tolerate it. She had very runny stools. I then tried a "middle of the road" quality food with grains, and the runny stools stopped. Grain free dry cat food isn't always well accepted by all cats, in my opinion and experience. 

You could try to find a different food, with whole ingredients, but includes grains, and still feed the wet pouches as well! Personally, I found Halo (Turkey) to help with my cat's digestive issues. It's lower in proteins than some, and contains grains, but hey, it works! I also feed a mixture of different grain free canned food, so I'm not too worried about the grains she gets in her breakfast meal of dry.

Good luck!

Hi everyone thank you I really appreciate your replies.

Interesting about the food.. Yes his food is grain free at the moment.

I spoke to my vet and they have prescribed benzindiazole? I think that's what she said over the phone I go pick it up later today. Weird because I've never heard this for treating giardia..... Nor could I come up with much on the internet. It's a five day course.

Thank you for the food advice! One of the pet stores carries halo so if giardia clears up and stools persist to be soft and smelly I'll look into that. I have some royal cabin kitten left from the breeder so I'll maybe try that if this doesn't work.

And yes I shall write the breeder because he must have got infected with it there..

My male cat is the only one of my 3 who can't tolerate a completely grain-free diet.  We feed him grain-free wet and a mix of a grain-free dry and a prescription dry food, Royal Canin's Gastrointestinal HE.  We've gotten the formula down to where it keeps the stools formed and good yet he's still mostly grain-free.  It works for us and for him, but it took us about 3 months to get the formula right.

Ask your vet for a sample of the RC Gastro HE and see if that helps him.

Thank you for the suggestion!

I got a liquid medication called Fenbendazole, which I believe is the common dewormer for giardia? Not sure what is standard treatment these days. The vet has him on it for 5 days once a day. I'll see how this goes and if problems persist and stool samples come back negative, onto the food related issues, yay! Here's hoping I can keep him on what he's eating right now... But very very interesting about cats not tolerating grain-free diets. Today was day one of the liquid stuff.

Also, on a side note when it comes to probiotics. Can I use ones sold in a drug store for humans? The breeder when I first got him months ago told me to do this, but then the vet told me not to. I ended up buying some petstore ones for cats, but its a lot cheaper/more for money if I could buy them from the drug store like I do his L-lysine human grade.

I plan to do a really good disinfection of our home tonight and keep up with it daily. The vet never told me any of this nor mentioned how easy reinfection via the environment is........ Would have been nice to know from them.

Oh and about the sani-shave: would be a great idea! But the problem is it's all over his bum hole that has the really runny stool, he doesn't seem to have all that much of an issue with his longer leg/around butt hair.